Foalish
by Vuld Edone
Summary: Pinkie Pie receives a card inviting her to the Everfree. She happily complies and steps into a little foalish prank of chaos.


**July 20 is Comedy's birthday, so have another fanfiction of the fanfictions "Laughter Lost" and "Unexpected".**

**I first had a monstruous project that, after a couple pages, proved unwise. So with two weeks left I looked for another idea... until I wondered what I wanted my text to say. And it's basically "eh, I'm here." Now, if you haven't read the concerned fics', you will see only chaos. If you have... there is still a riddle for you. A foalish one.**

* * *

Dreams were dreams in the pink pony head, she didn't even care what it was because it had changed already, and rolling and hopping she could still get to see her many friends and try to guess who was who, and then have a hide and seek! Because she wanted to be with the girls and so she was until another Pinkie Pie came bouncing around like a fluffy ball and distract the others, repeating endlessly: "You got mail! You got mail!" Before that fake Pinkie stopped in front of the pink earth pony and poking her chest she almost sang: "You got mail!"

And she woke up, dawn through her window, cuddled in her cozy bed. No mail... but then she had mail! It was there on the covers, a little card in a blue envelope slightly opened. She squealed at that and grabbed it.

It was the first time somepony did send her a message like that, and it had all of the invitation letter kind! So she first hugged the envelope tight before taking the telegram and read it.

"Hey there, Pinkie!" It said at the beginning. "Want to have fun? Because I do! Meet me at the" she squinted her eyes, "Everfree forest: also, it's totally not a trap! So don't be late! Seriously, don't be late, I hate waiting."

All of that hoofwritten with not too much care but just a tad bit, which made Pinkie Pie roll out of bed and grin.

"An anonymous invitation! Oh I wonder who it could be!" She told her little alligator who rose its head out of the tub.

Then she slowed down, ears dropping when she thought she had to work this morning, because there were sweets to cook and the foals to sit, because it was not yesterday but today and today she didn't have to work and foalsit! It was the day she was free, so lucky! She felt all tingling, or tickling, no it was definitely a tingle of excitation she decided, itchy at her flank and she giggled. Pinkie leapt before her mirror, brushed her mane then watched it bounce back in place then waved at Gummy as she was heading out.

Letter at her muzzle she went through town straight for the soil paths leading to the forest. She looked at Fluttershy's cottage and wondered, was she the anonymous pony? But her friend showed at the window, waved at her and kept watering her flowers. They quickly met, Pinkie too happy about her mysterious invitation to stay long so soon both went their way, which meant the earth pony left in a happy trot.

As soon as she edged the Everfree Pinkie's pace reduced to a stride and she looked around, expecting a pony to hop out of bushes or trees. She was giggling and smiling, getting further into the scary woods until she heard another voice just out of the path. So the pink mare turned that way and approached, letter still in her mouth and smiling brightly.

The tiny clearing opened before her, with a serpentine spirit of Chaos pacing around, turning to her with a friendly smile: "There you ar-" Discord cut, frowning. "Oh. It's only you."

"Of course it's me!" Pinkie approached joyfully. "I came as soon as I received your anonymous letter, see?" And she showed the card she had been mumbling through all along.

"I didn't send a card, I received one." And he pouf'ed the same blue card out of thin air, right into his paw, showed it to the excited pony.

She cocked her head, wondering.

"But if it's not you, and it's not me... then who did?"

The chaotic beast shrugged: "Certainly a pony more imaginative than you. Just watching the sun go its oh so ordered course makes me yawn! Now why don't you go count the paint on your walls while I try not to dry out of boredom."

"Oh, okay!" Pinkie simply said, turned round and walked away. "See you!" She added before gaining speed and trotting by the path to leave the Everfree. As soon as she had put distance she frown, surprised, and plunged into her thoughts. It was a prank? But who? And why? It wasn't even very funny, at least to her. Musing about it the pink bouncy pony reached the fields and looked at the cottage again, guessing she would tell Fluttershy about it. At least tell her Discord was around so she might want to go see him.

She went to her window, called for her friend but only critters answered, looking at her before returning to their naps. She circled the house and was about to knock at the door when she noticed the note put on it. "Sorry, I had to leave" the note said in nice tiny letters. "but I will be back soon, promise. So go back to your meeting already." Pinkie turned and was about to leave when she blinked, looked at the note and read that last part again. Did Fluttershy... leave that last remark specially for her? Why not she guessed and smiling at that Pinkie decided it would wait.

"Found you!" Young voices almost startled her.

The three Crusaders had skidded fast just before the pink mare, with big smiles and excitement. She smiled back: "Hello girls!" And she was happy seeing the three fillies so happy too.

"We did just like you asked, napkin and all!" Applebloom said in just one breath, all too proud.

Scootaloo added: "So who are we pranking?"

Pinkie froze in her warmly smile. She rushed to remember when she had asked the three young fillies to help her do a prank, but it wasn't this morning, or yesterday, or the day before that. And she didn't remember she wanted to prank anypony. But at the same time, it was a prank, it would be fun! So she happily answered: "I have no idea!" And motioned to go there for the fillies quite surprised.

The three had put a picnic setting up with a napkin black and white, balloons and punch. It was odd seeing that but Pinkie didn't mind. The girls at her side were still wondering what the mare had in mind, and she was wondering the same.

"Now all we have to do" she answered herself "is wait for the pranked to come!"

As soon as she had said it, she noticed the girls had disappeared, saw them hop in a bush away. She was about to follow them when she noticed somepony coming, more precisely fly slowly to land in a serpentine move. Discord pawfaced.

"You again? And what is this" he looked at the setting, "a foal's fantasy?"

"I don't know" Pinkie Pie joyfully admitted. "But it's odd. I am here again and you are here again... it's like it's the same prank!"

"Whatever suits you my dear..." groaned the spirit, before judging the place again. "This said, it does have its nice chaotic touch. Why, this might even get amusing." He glanced at the pony. "If you stopped being in the way."

"I am not, see?" She giggled stepping aside.

Discord sighed and snapped his fingers. The very second he was jumping into a green pipe that disappeared into the ground. Just after that the Crusaders left their bush to run back to the pink mare. They were as worried as excited.

"So how did it go? Are you okay? Was it the prank?" They all asked.

"Girls," she calmed them with a hoof, laughing a bit, "do you remember how or when I asked you to make this prank?"

They looked at each other, confused, then Sweetie Belle took out a pink card in a pink envelope that Pinkie immediately recognized. Those had been designed for Gummy's birthday, she knew that sticker per heart. Somepony had recovered one to make the fillies believe it was her! "You sent us this card, just this morning! See?" Sweetie Belle said, showing the card that Pinkie read for herself. She opened her eyes wide when she recognized the writing. It was her writing.

She bit the card, kept it in her mouth and thanked the fillies. "I have to go!" To Twilight she thought, because when it was about hoofwriting she was the mare to call. She rushed down the path back to Ponyville, leaving the trio of fillies a bit lost, if not blank, but she was too much in a hurry to really care for that. Her thought was clear, the prank was going too far.

And as usual all the answers were at the library. She rushed through the door, found Spike who indicated the basement for her. "Where's Twilight?" She asked and he repeated her motion: "At the basement?" The baby dragon answered. She thanked him then went downstairs to find the princess in the middle of her task, measuring the cutie mark of Applejack.

"Twilight, I need your help!" She called her friend.

"I know" Twilight answered.

"You do?"

"Of course. There seems to be a problem with everypony's cutie marks, some sort of fading. Don't worry, I am on the case."

And Pinkie Pie watched the purple alicorn return to her measurements on Applejack's flanks. She had almost widened her jaw but kept it closed as to not lose the pink card she was still holding. What? What was Twilight talking about? She only wanted to know who had counterfeited her card!

"Eh," Applejack intervened. "ya weren't meant to meet with Dash at the lake?"

Pinkie cocked her head. "What now?"

The cowmare raised an eyebrow. "Ya mean ya didn't get her card? She said she would put it right on your bed!"

It was as if another gear had taken place in Pinkie's head. It was Dash! Dash had pranked her! But she shook her head and leaving thoughts to thoughts she made the brave mare repeat, that Dash had wanted to invite Pinkie at the lake and written a card, "Pinkie style", that she had put on her bed, while the pink mare was sleeping. "Is there a problem?" Twilight wondered, but Pinkie Pie had already dropped the pink letter to rush out and towards the lake.

Only certain thing was, she would be late, very late. Chances were Rainbow Dash wouldn't even be there anymore. But aside from the guilt the pink pony wanted answers, and she would find them there. She galloped past the last houses, ran over the hill and past the intersection, to then skid and trot back quickly, stop before the sign. One indicated the lake, the other the town. Towards the lake was written "no fun", and towards the town "lots of fun!" with the exclamation point.

She blinked. Then blinked again. Then touched the sign to make sure it was there. Then she fretted, wondering if she was asleep. "Okay!" She defied, "I'll play along!" And she returned to gallop.

The lake was there, close by, just down the slope and she looked for the rainbow mane somewhere near, immediately caught it at the very edge of the water. Rainbow Dash was splashing waves with her hoof, laying on the grass and looking almost asleep. "Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie Pie yelled from away as she galloped to her. The sky blue mare rose straight and breathed.

"Took you long enough!" She hid her frustration behind some mockery.

The earth pony cut: "It's not my fault, your card got hijacked!"

"What?"

"Somepony took your card and wrote another place on it! I went to the Everfree to find Discord and then Scoot' and her friends said they had received a card from me and it's all very complicated..."

The fierce mare raised a hoof for Pinkie to stop, then rubbed her muzzle and repeated: so this was Discord's fault. Pinkie wondered, because now that her friend said it like that it was the most logical explanation. And she thought, that would explain the cutie mark thing Twilight was talking about.

"Oh!" She remembered. "You should go see Twilight, something about cutie marks." She grinned. "I will be right behind you!"

Her fierce friend first hesitated but nodded and was soon dashing through the sky. Pinkie watched her go then turned and looked around. She was certain the prankster was watching, and more and more convinced it was the spirit of Chaos.

Just where Rainbow had splashed the water was floating a blue envelope.

"Oh not this time!" She growled before plunging her head into the water, to find what pony had put it there. But the lake crystal clear was empty, if not for fishes. She grumbled underwater, got out and picked the envelope. It was wet, as was the card inside but she still could read it.

"Hey there Pinkie!" It said. "Want to have fun? Because I do! Meet me at Fluttershy's cottage: also, I'll definitely be there. So don't be late! Seriously, don't be late... please?"

It was the same message. With just a few words changed. Pinkie Pie slowly slipped the card back into the wet envelope, her face stern. That joke had gone way too far for her taste, but putting the envelope back on the water she nodded at her reflection which nodded back at the same time: she would play along just this one last time, and get the answers she wanted.

When she crossed Ponyville for the second or third time this morning she noticed Twilight Sparkle addressing the crowd in front of the City Hall. She was talking about cutie marks, with three of their friends at her side. Suddenly the crowd gasped and began to panic. "Meh!" The pinky pony reacted. "I'll panic later." And she let the stallions and mares run around her, screaming.

Her pace was somewhat frustrated when she reached the cottage where she immediately spotted the reptilian body rubbing his beard, Discord in an argument with the young shy mare who was all but happy.

"I am being framed!" He was protesting. "I would never do that! Well, to you at least."

"Hi Fluttershy!" Pinkie Pie said joyfully, then with a somewhat mild smile, "hey again, Discord. So what's happening here?"

Discord pointed at Fluttershy's cottage, at the wall painted with a giant "chaos is fun!" in bright, colorful letters. Not only that, but foalish, and it was still drying. Fluttershy was explaining how she was gardening when suddenly the letters were there... but Pinkie wasn't listening. Discord was watching her suspiciously, wondering before he asked: "It wouldn't be... you, by any chance?"

"Me?" Pinkie seemed offended. "Of course not!"

"Too bad." The spirit sighed. "Well, it has to go anyway, so why bother."

And he snapped his fingers, making the letters blink and form the words: "Let's have fun!" He cocked his head, surprised. Then snapped again and watched as the letters now said: "You like fun!" The spirit of chaos took a step back, a bit lost.

"Discord?" Fluttershy asked. "Please stop."

"It's not me!" the draconequus protested again. "Those pesky letters are stubborn!" And then he chuckled. "They are funny!"

Fluttershy looked down, giving up. "I'll go get a mop."

When her shy friend turned to leave Pinkie finally noticed, how the young mare's cutie mark, of butterflies, has faded, becoming hard to see on her coat. She gasped, turned to watch her own flank and saw the balloons also faded, slowly disappearing. Her heart wavered, she felt cold on her flank while Discord played with the letters, snapping his fingers to see what would appear.

The spirit stopped only when the letters formed "please", which surprised him, and he noticed the two mares were gone. Pinkie Pie had run along the path, slowed down to look around, feeling followed. She felt paper under her hooves, stopped and looked. It was a parchment, and another bumped on her head, falling from the sky. She looked up just in time to receive another scroll on the muzzle, then another one. And looking the pink mare saw the cloud that was making those letters rain. On that cloud seemed to be a pony, jumping joyfully. "Got you!" Pinkie smirked while reaching for a ball in her ball stash in the nearest tree.

She put the ball down, hopped on it and in just three bumps she reached the cloud height, to see Cloudchaser... sleeping. "Eh!" She called and the mare woke up, watched Pinkie go up and down bouncing on the ball. "Did you... see another... pony around... by any chance?" And the pegasus, still half in her sleep and startled, simply shook her head in response.

Pinkie Pie frowned and let go of the ball, landing near the dozen letters whose seals were broken. She looked at them and noticed: most were empty, beginning with just:

"Dear Pinkie, today I learned..." And that was it, the rest of the parchment was blank. Then two or three had lessons, but were also addressed to the princess, Celestia, as if untouched. The letters were there, scarce on the soil path, and it wasn't inviting anymore. She was trying to make sense out of all this, but what sense was there? It was just... chaos.

"Who are you?" She called aloud, to nopony, just shouting in the empty surrounding of the fields. "What do you want?!"

She searched for somepony, only to discover the nearest tree, just over the stash, marked on its trunk with an arrow and heart. Pinkie fretted, stepped back. Then she saw the two names linked by that heart, and they were just ponies from Ponyville, that she knew. They had probably carved it long ago, it had been there and she only noticed it now. She sighed, a bit reassured. Then she looked around and saw the same sign carved on the bark of every tree around her.

"Stop it!" She screamed. "Leave me alone!" And she scampered to the town.

When she reached it, doors and windows were shut, the streets silent, as if deserted. All to her thoughts she had forgotten about the cutie mark thingy. Hers was almost icy and when she looked at it she almost missed the balloons. She shuddered. She too felt the need to go hide in her room, but she fought it.

But then again... what could she do? She looked at the street and she had nowhere to go, no way to solve either her problem or that of the entire town. Very, very slowly, she began to muse if the two weren't connected. If the pony that had been pranking her... wasn't the same making the marks disappear. "But why?" She wondered aloud. Then the pink earth mare thought she didn't want to play that game anymore, and was ready to go to her room when she realized it was out of fear. Once more, she fought it.

Still, she had continued through the town, reached Sugarcube Corner and forced herself to go further, anywhere, just continue. A pony called her and she turned, saw the old mailstallion reach her and offer a letter.

"Here!" He said, seeming not to notice Ponyville's state. "It's for you little lady."

"No thanks!" She smiled back, leaving the letter in his hoof.

"No probl- w-what?" The old pony reacted. "But it's for you! It has your name!"

"Yeah but I don't want to read it."

And the mailpony, a bit lost, admitted it was her right to refuse a letter. He turned the envelope in his hooves, wondering what he would do with it but Pinkie Pie didn't care and went on with her happy trot. She knew the streets per heart so she also closed her eyes and hummed joyfully, despite the cold at her flank. That way, she thought, there would be no more message.

She was pranking the prankster.

In just a few seconds she had forgotten why she was doing this, just happily walking around with her little hum. "It's fun!" She thought, and she thought it definitely was. Laughter echoed and she opened her eyes, startled. She had walked right to the town's school, by the door and she was facing the blackboard from the last row of seats. The blackboard was black, blank, perfectly clean. There was no chalk, no pencil. Not a drawing, nothing on the walls, nothing on the seats. She heard laughter again, little fillies playing, looked at the windows to see the playground still and heard nothing anymore.

Then as she turned she faced Fluttershy. She shrieked and the creamy pegasus shrieked too, both of them shrieking before Pinkie: "Oh it's you!" And she grinned as the shy mare recovered. "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" Fluttershy emphasized the "you". She had noticed, too, how the classroom was emptied but dismissed it. "Shouldn't you be with Discord?"

"Why should I?" Pinkie wondered.

Fluttershy looked at her for a second, before: "Well, uh... it's just that... well... you to are always together..."

Pinkie Pie was about to protest and laugh at the idea when she suddenly noticed, past the mare's pink and smooth mane, her friend's flank. It hadn't struck her at first but she realized it, that Fluttershy's cutie mark was intact. Suddenly her heart raced, her face turned suspicious.

"And, well, today there is no school so..."

"Who are you?" Pinkie asked, putting her hoof on Fluttershy's snout. "You look like Fluttershy, you act like Fluttershy but you're not Fluttershy! Your cutie mark is intact, and you say I should be with Discord... are you the prankster?"

The creamy mare had stepped back, suddenly worried, almost scared, retreated by the stairs and crouched.

"What? No! But I..." and she suddenly gasped. "Pinkie, what happened to your cutie mark?!"

"Don't try to distract me!" The pink mare stepped forth, although she hesitated before this genuine expression. "You are the pony who sent me all those letters! The one who pranked me the whole day! The one who is making cutie marks disappear!"

Fluttershy had crouched belly on the floor, put her two hooves on her head and began sobbing. "Please, Pinkie, stop! It's me, Fluttershy, your friend..." And Pinkie, still convinced she was right, got no heart to insist. And, if she was wrong, she had just made a friend cry. Pinkie's anger diminished and she closed her eyes to sigh. When she opened them, Fluttershy was gone. All that remained was the scent of tea, as if just taken out of heat.

That's when she suddenly felt empty. Not just because of her friend's disappearance, if it had been her friend at all, but because glancing at her flank she saw it blank, totally blank. Noon rang on the town.

She first thought, she still had one card to play. Go see Discord, have him fight chaos with chaos. But the mare felt no will to go. She felt no more strength in her hooves and fell on the path, began to sob there, began to cry. She was feeling empty, worse than in the past, and it was so sudden, and she was unprepared. She couldn't gather any joy in her heart.

A leaf fell from a tree and when it touched the earth near the pink mare, that leaf was a letter. Then more leaves fell.

Even when tears dried, as she got accustomed to this emptiness, Pinkie stood lain, hooves on her muzzle, before her eyes. She heard hooves approaching but didn't care.

A foal's voice greeted her.

She didn't answer.

The foal's voice insisted.

She told her to go away.

The foal's voice insisted.

She yelled for her to go away. Whatever the foal would do or say, Pinkie had no more heart to even care. So eventually, the hooves went away.

Then a paw touched her shoulder and she felt a thrill, all of her feelings coming back like a hot shower. She hopped and looked around, saw the draconequus laughing a bit. Beside the spirit was Fluttershy, with her cutie mark slightly faded. And Fluttershy seemed relieved, happy to see Pinkie back on her hooves, and Pinkie was happy all the same.

"There," Discord mimicked a doctor, talking to Fluttershy, "I fixed all your friends. Are you still angry at me?"

"Well..." Fluttershy pondered. "I guess you do need to have fun from time to time. You are forgiven."

"Much, obliged." The spirit of chaos bowed.

"What do you mean?" Pinkie pie wondered. "Discord did nothing. It was-"

The spirit of chaos muted her in a snap and corrected dramatically: "Alas, it was me! I was so bored that I lost control of my chaos and threatened the poor, poor ponies of Ponyville!" And he almost fainted out of guilt, making Pinkie giggle at his scene. The lie was so blatant... but was it a lie? The more she thought about it, the more probable it sounded. So... all of this... was just Discord bored? A nice spirit needing his fun? She could understand that.

And she decided, for no reason, to just spend a little more time with him.


End file.
